Thursday, January 18, 2018

Tales of Tomorrow (1952 TV) Red Dust

A spaceship is returning to Earth after visiting Alpha Centauri, a dust covered planet with no life, but where once lived an advanced civilization. Two of her crew died on the alien world, but a red dust will seal the fate of the survivors on this mission. This was an excellent psychological drama taking place aboard a spaceship, showing how people react under stressful situations. This is from 1952, a time when you used your imagination and could make believe what you were seeing was true. No budget for special effects, no spacesuits for the actors, and you have to laugh at some of it, like a liquor bar on the spaceship where an astronaut can get a drink, Scottie from Star Trek would love that. Red Dust is the earliest film I know of where they talk about astronauts being contaminated and the possibility of infecting the Earths population. Good early science fiction TV and worth watching.